[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16664-16665]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     50-YEAR CLASS REUNION OF THE 1965 CLASS OF WESTERN HIGH SCHOOL

 Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, this week in my hometown of 
Baltimore, MD, the Western High School class of 1965 will gather to 
celebrate their 50th class reunion. In honor of this special occasion, 
I wish to take a moment to pay tribute to the experiences of the WHS 
class of 1965 and commemorate the lasting legacy of Western High 
School, which continues to produce leaders for the Baltimore community.
  To this day, Western High School remains a source of pride for the 
city of Baltimore. Founded as Western Female High School in 1844, it 
remains the oldest operating public all-girls high school in the Nation 
nearly 171 years after its doors opened on North Paca Street. Prior to 
the opening of Western Female High School and its now defunct companion 
Eastern Female High School, Baltimore City females were without an 
opportunity to advance their education beyond the basic grammar school 
level. Female students from across the city were drawn to the academic 
rigor of Western High School, creating a true magnet school, as we know 
today. As the city of Baltimore grew, so did Western High School. In 
1896, Western High School moved to a larger location on Lafayette and 
McCulloh Streets, which allowed for the expansion of courses to include 
clerical courses. Today Western High School resides on a joint campus 
opened in 1967 with the all-male Baltimore Polytechnic Institute on 
Falls Road.
  The WHS class of 1965 graduated from Western in a transitionary 
period for Western. Two years away from the opening of the current 
campus, Western High School students attended classes in the heart of 
downtown Baltimore. With an overpopulated school building that forced 
administrators to move to a split shift schedule to accommodate all of 
Western's students, alumnae often participated in work or volunteer 
opportunities located within walking distance of the school. This 
proximity to downtown also allowed Western students to participate in 
the burgeoning civil rights movement in Baltimore City, including the 
picketing of businesses which refused to serve African Americans. While 
Western High School students can fondly remember their efforts to fight 
for social justice in the civil rights movement, the class of 1965 was 
also struck by the tragic news of President John F. Kennedy's 
assassination. Even as WHS

[[Page 16665]]

mourned this news, former Western High School alumna Sarah T. Hughes, 
then judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of 
Texas and just the third woman to ever serve as a Federal jurist, 
administered the oath of office to then-Vice President Lyndon B. 
Johnson aboard Air Force One.
  The storied history of Western High School and school motto, ``Lucem 
accepimus, lucem demus''--``We have received light, let us give 
light''--has continued to inspire generations of students and countless 
alumnae of WHS. Among its alumnae include Henrietta Szold, the founder 
of Hadassah; Trazana Beverley, a 1977 Tony Award Winner; former 
Maryland State superintendent of schools Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick; current 
Baltimore City mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake; and current Western High 
School principal Michelle White. As the WHS class of 1965 comes 
together this week to celebrate their class reunion and years of 
friendship, I encourage each alumnae to remember the words they were 
taught at Western High School many years ago and continue to strengthen 
their own communities.

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